At the moment I am reading One Day by David Nicholls which I guess you would call an 'adult book'. One of the main characters is called Emma, which I find a little weird. Perhaps weirder is how much she reminds me of myself. Have you ever had that when you're reading a book?
Anyway, it turns out she's quite a thinker and a creative one at that and when talking about her play she's performing for schools she says, 'once again life is failing to imitate art.'
Her irony got me thinking. Unfortunately life doesn't imitate art (that's all forms of art, not just fine art), but should art imitate life?
When I was wandering from painting to painting in London (look at yesterday's post for more of that) I found myself getting really annoyed at how unrealistic some of the paintings were. Would Jesus really have white skin living in Israel? Are medieval science experiments really performed in a darkened room with only one candle creating dramatic lighting on the faces of the onlookers? Was the young Lady Grey really wearing a brilliantly white dress at her execution to contrast the drab clothes of the others present? Would farmers from hundreds of years ago really wear purple trousers to work? The answer is, probably not. All of these are artistic details to emphasize certain areas of the painting, creating mood, depth, colour balance...
Art is escapism, entertainment, meaningful representations...so does it have to replicate 'real life'? Not if the creator doesn't want it to. Then again, the creator can make it whatever they want. That's the beauty of art isn't it? Its an interpretation of the world or maybe an experimentation of what the world could be...
What do you want to say through your creations? Do you want to imitate reality, show injustice in the world? Do you want to create a safe haven for people to escape to? Do you want to experiment with boundaries or try something no one has ever done before? You really can do anything! So, go for it. Be inspired by what has come before you and make it your own. Being creative means, when you've got something interesting to say, you have an interesting way of saying it! So, what are you waiting for?
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